Human
by Bleu Mae
Summary: Jerilyn didn't think she'd ever come to witness the dead coming back to life. She didn't think she'd come to witness the fall of civilization, or the brutality humans could possess. But she did come to witness it, and she couldn't decide which was more terrifying: the dead or the living. [Bad summary, hopefully story makes up for it. Daryl/Jerilyn pairing.]
1. Chapter 1

_Maybe I'm foolish_  
 _Maybe I'm blind_  
 _Thinking I can see through this_  
 _And see what's behind_  
 _Got no way to prove it_  
 _So maybe I'm blind_  
 _But I'm only human after all_  
 _I'm only human after all_  
 _Don't put your blame on me_

-Human; **by Rag'n'Bone Man**

* * *

Jerilyn Duchannes used to love watching horror movies with her friends. It was entertaining. Jerilyn loved the thrill of it all — that adrenaline rush whenever a jumpscare happened; the shock that ran through her body whenever some kind of twist occurred. It sent chills up her spine, made her body tremble in anticipation. Jerilyn's _favorite_ kind of horror movies were the apocalypse ones, ironic enough. She used to laugh with her friends on how the protagonists did super predictable things; how the antagonists weren't even good; how every apocalypse movie ever made seemed to regurgitate the same kind of plot, no matter how many ways the producers tried changing it. It was meaningless fun. At least, until it wasn't. When all those stupid movies Jerilyn and her friends would make fun of started to happen, with less Hollywood predictability and more...realism.

All those jokes, all those snide comments and remarks, those slowly eased their way out of Jerilyn's mind as she watched her entire world — both her own personal world and the one around her — fall apart.

 _ **~8~**_

It all happened in stages, that's how Jerilyn kept track of the apocalypse. That was how she kept herself sane when everything else — when everyone else — seemed so crazy.

Stage 1 had been the news reports. News stations and radio broadcasting systems aired the spread of an unknown virus. It was called the Wildfire Virus, because of how quickly it spread and how fast people got infected. Origins for the Wildfire Virus: unknown. Conspiracy theorists believed it was the beginning of biological warfare; the use of unknown, possibly mutated, pathogens to cause serious damage to the enemy. It was unsettling, how suddenly the Wildfire Virus came to be, how fast it seemed to spread and just how many people were falling ill. News reporters suggested deep cleaning to prevent the spreading of bacteria, making sure the healthy were wearing masks and other forms of protection against airborne spreading. The sick were sent to hospitals, only displaying flulike symptoms in the beginning — aching joints, congestion, coughing, headaches, trouble sleeping, etc. Stage 1 lasted a period of two and a half months, with no luck on finding anything useful on anything that was going on. But that was only Stage 1.

Stage 2 was the spark. The virus was progressing faster than anyone was comfortable with. Doctors and scientists only knew that the virus was extremely aggressive, and once it had a living host... There were countless claims that studies were being done to create vaccinations for the virus, but because no known origins could be discovered, it was nearly impossible. Was the Wildfire Virus bacterial? Was it fungal? Was it something else entirely, like an already known bug that just mutated? Maybe it was the beginning of biological warfare. Jerilyn wouldn't be surprised, but it didn't make the situation better. Stage 2 added three months onto the two and a half months that went by.

Stage 3 was the fanning of the spark. The infected were dying off, the people were starting to become unsettled, antsy. News of rioting in parts of the country were being broadcasted on news stations and on radio stations. Police were being sent in to calm the rioters, rumors of the military even coming in to stop the fighting. Apparently, shots had been fired and some people had been killed. That was also when stories were beginning to change. The people who were once declared dead were coming back, both recently deceased from the virus, and those in graveyards. Corpses were coming back to life and eating the living, whoever managed to escape with only bite marks would later die from infection and then come back as corpses. That was the start of the never ending cycle. Then the power went out. Everyone realized they were isolated. More riots broke out. The government had to intervene, splitting the healthy up into safe-zones, while anyone who'd recently been infected — whether it be with the virus or anything else — were being sent off in high numbers. The safe-zones were expected to keep the living away from big cities, away from the dead. The military were in charge of the zones, of giving resources to the survivors. A month and a half was added onto the five and a half months that already went by.

Stage 4 was when society officially dissolved. Some of the safe-zones lasted longer than others. Jerilyn heard stories of some safe-zones lasting maybe a month at most, while others lasted for months afterward, lasting well into the official fall of civilization. Even after the military's betrayal. After the power had been cut, the military didn't have a lot of ways to communicate with each other, which meant they had easy access to abuse the survivors in their care. They wouldn't distribute the resources fairly; they'd ask for favors before distributing food, water, or medicine. A lot of those favors weren't pleasant. A lot of good people ended up exiled or dead because they wouldn't go through with what the soldiers wanted. When the soldiers first started killing survivors who disobeyed them, that led to a good number of people standing up to what was going on, which led to more violence. Eventually, there was an uprising in certain safe-zones, and the soldiers stationed in those areas were either taken down or driven out. As for the sick, after they'd been gathered up, they had been taken to nearby military facilities _(tents that were put up miles from the nearest zone)_ or to hospitals to be tested on. No amount of medication would cure the sick, no amount of studying got remaining doctors or scientists any closer to understanding what was going on. Not long after, the sick were put down. Stage 4, in total, no matter how long the safe-zones lasted, added three months to the seven months that had already gone by.

For Jerilyn, Stage 5 was the final stage. Stage 5 was survival. With the old way of running things gone, that meant everyone either had to become self-reliant or learn how to adapt in a group. The ones who managed to go without being infected in the first couple months were left to be exposed to a world that was violent and vengeful. The dead roamed the streets, hid in houses, and occupied otherwise abandoned cars in most situations. While the dead was obviously a danger — one bite from them and the victim would eventually turn into them — humans proved to be just as dangerous, if not more so. Corpses could be killed, it was quickly discovered that one blow to a corpse's head killed it for good; humans, on the other hand, were a different story. Humans could think, plan out strategies, do elaborate schemes to get an end goal. Corpses were walking skin and bones hungry for flesh; nothing else mattered but that. Not to mention that corpses tended to shuffle, and that usually meant the uninfected could get away rather easily. It was only when they decided to make a horde that corpses became dangerous. Cities seemed to have the most dead, where people had been so close together in cities the Wildfire Virus could spread even quicker. Towns seemed to have less of the dead, but still enough to be dangerous. Not only that, but gangs of survivors tended to make certain areas their domain. Anyone who trespassed in an area that wasn't theirs would get killed or worse. Stores, homes, cars, anything with the capability of being looted was looted. Medicine was scarce; food was becoming harder and harder to find. Clean water was just as difficult to find. So was a car with a full — or even partial — tank of gas plus a working battery. Weapons were essential. Various blades, knives more commonly, were used to kill corpses. Guns were useful, but with bullets becoming even more rare than medicine and water, they were used at a bare minimum. Stage 5 went from the ten month mark onward.

Jerilyn Duchannes watched civilization fall firsthand. She witnessed everything she'd ever known turn upside down in just less than a year.

 ** _~8~_**

When the safe-zones were being established, Jerilyn had been passing through Arkansas. She was trying to get to Alabama, where her younger brother was living. Beforehand, Jerilyn had been staying in her home state of Oklahoma with her older sister, Dany, in hopes of getting enough money for making it to Alabama in one piece. Unfortunately, Jerilyn couldn't even get halfway through Arkansas before her car died. Then the safe-zones were enforced, so Jerilyn had no choice but to go. It had been bad enough the power had been cut, but having to stay in a small area run by the military was even worse. The soldiers would watch everyone's movements like a hawk. Once the soldiers started getting a little power hungry, that was when things started to feel a little tense. Survivors were trying to hold onto the flicker of hope that maybe the soldiers would revert back to the way they were before, but it wasn't happening, and the survivors weren't happy. One of those survivors being a woman named Veronica Chavez.

During her time in the safe-zone, Jerilyn befriended Veronica Chavez. Veronica was a very outspoken individual, coming from a relatively wealthy Mexican family, the young woman had a lot going for her before everything went to shit. Just like Jerilyn learned plenty of info on her new friend, Veronica came to understand her new friend, as well. Veronica learned that Jerilyn had Dutch/Pawnee Indian heritage, having grown up with an older sister in Oklahoma with their Native American mother. Jerilyn had spoken of a younger brother who went to live with his father in Alabama after a nasty divorce. Veronica's parents, due to religious purposes, found divorce distasteful; having worked out any disagreements through communication and religion. Veronica knew that Jerilyn loved her siblings immensely, and when Jerilyn graduated high school, lived with her sister for a while before deciding to pay their brother a visit in Alabama. That had been around the time the Wildfire Virus started picking up steam.

For Jerilyn, she looked up to Veronica in a way, seeing the other woman as someone who had potential to do well in the new world. Veronica could see the inequality the soldiers were establishing on the people, and she wanted to do something about it. Jerilyn had always been used to just letting things work themselves out; she didn't want to get involved if she could help it. But in the new world, it was all about involvement. Passiveness led to death or reanimation, and Jerilyn couldn't decide which was worse.

But when the safe-zone was becoming less and less safe, Jerilyn participated in the riots against the soldiers, but while she got away with some cuts and bruises, Veronica hadn't been so lucky. A soldier had shot Veronica point blank, the young woman dying instantly. Jerilyn managed to escape just before she got any major injuries, but that didn't stop her from mourning the death of her friend. Veronica Chavez gave Jerilyn the push she needed to survive. Everything she did afterward was up to her.

* * *

 **(A/N):**

 **Not the best way to end a chapter, but where I'm at right now, it's well into 1 in the morning and I have work later in the day so I thought I'd end it somewhere. If you've got any constructive criticism, don't hesitate to let me know. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter. Hopefully it was interesting for you guys.**

 **TWD isn't mine. I own Jerilyn, Veronica, any other OCs I had, and any subplots in the story.**

 **It's pretty exciting season 8 will be released in a little over a month. To me, it seems like season 8 will be really exciting, especially since the trailer showed Old Man Rick at the end. Now, I started reading the comics _(I haven't finished the comics)_ not that long ago, but what I do understand is that after Negan and the Saviors are taken down, there's a time skip and then we've got Old Man Rick. I could be wrong, some of what I know on TWD I read on the internet before I started reading the comics or watching the show. I didn't even start watching the show until after the midseason finale for season 3. But that's not important right now.**

 **As a warning for you guys, I start fall quarter at my community college in about two and a half weeks, maybe less, so I'll be pretty busy with that and work. I'll have some time to update a few chapters every now and again between now and then, but I thought I'd let you guys know.**

 **Thanks plenty.**

 **Bleu**


	2. Chapter 2

_Here we go, here we go_  
 _It's my turn to make history_  
 _Here we go, here we go_  
 _When I'm gone they'll remember me, yeah_

-Legend; **by The Score**

* * *

 _"You're looking for your brother?" Veronica looked at Jerilyn with an arched brow. The two women were sitting outside of Jerilyn's house, watching as other survivors tried to go through their day. The soldiers were standing by the chain linked fence, occasionally walking over to see what the others were doing. For the most part, it was an uneventful day; nothing major was happening, which was both good and bad. Everyone expected something to happen, but they were enjoying the peace while it lasted._

 _"Yeah," Jerilyn sighed. "He lives in Alabama with his father. I wanted to check on them before things got too bad."_

 _Veronica nodded, taking a drag from her cigarette. Jerilyn's nose scrunched up. Veronica was an avid smoker, having multiple smoke breaks a day just to stay somewhat functional. For Jerilyn, she couldn't stand smoking — the smell of it was disgusting, the way it clung to everything was disgusting. Jerilyn's older sister, Dany, was an occasional smoker, only when Dany got stressed did she have a smoke. Whenever Dany brought the cigarettes out, Jerilyn knew to leave. But for Veronica, she smoked at least four cigarettes a day, and there was no way for Jerilyn to leave without her friend following her._

 _"What happened to your father?" Veronica asked._

 _In the time since the two women got to know each other, Jerilyn never once mentioned her own father. Dany and Jerilyn shared the same father, it was their brother who had a different one._

 _"I've been told he left before I was born," she responded. "Dany and my mom don't like talking about it."_

 _Nodding, Veronica took another drag from her cigarette. When she let out the smoke, Jerilyn gave a slight scowl. "Sorry," Veronica said. "I know you don't like this, but I can't help it."_

 _"Don't worry about it."_

 _"So why'd your mom divorce your stepdad?" It was a simple enough question. Lenny was the name of Jerilyn's stepfather, the father of her brother, Sebastian. Lenny wasn't exactly a bad man, but he wasn't entirely good either. He fell somewhere in the middle. When Sebastian was born, Lenny's behavior dwindled on the edge of bad, he became short tempered and was more impatient. Jerilyn's mother, Agatha, was, essentially, raising three kids on her own. Lenny would disappear for days or weeks at a time, eventually Agatha divorced Lenny, not long after Sebastian's fourth birthday, but he somehow managed to get full custody of Sebastian. It broke Agatha's heart, that her son was in the custody of someone like Lenny. Not long after the divorce proceedings concluded, Lenny and Sebastian moved to Alabama. Any contact between them and Jerilyn's family stopped. After graduating high school and living with Dany for a little bit, Jerilyn decided to travel down to Alabama once the Wildfire Virus started getting out of control. She wanted to know if Sebastian was OK. At that point, it had been five years since Jerilyn had seen her brother, and she just wanted a little reassurance._

 _"He wasn't exactly a good guy," Jerilyn responded. "It only got worse after my brother was born. Once my mom divorced my stepdad, he gained full custody of my brother and they hit the road. I just wanted to know if my brother was still alive."_

 _Veronica nodded. Putting her cigarette out, she let out a sigh. "That's understandable," she said. "Sucks you have to be stuck here."_

 _"Yeah. It really does."_

 ** _~8~_**

Looking at her bloodied knife, Jerilyn let out a sigh. She had just killed her fifth corpse in the past hour. It had to be some kind of record, right? Was the heat making them more active? Jerilyn always assumed the heat made the corpses _less_ active, with their decomposition speeding up and everything. The corpse on the ground in front of her was already in, what Jerilyn assumed to be, middle to late stages of decomposition. The skin was discolored and flimsy, the teeth were rotted and bones were practically protruding out of whatever the skin couldn't hold together. The knife wound on the corpse's head showed blackish blood, trickling out of the wound.

That corpse, Jerilyn thought, used to be a person. Someone's child, spouse, friend. Wiping the blood on her jeans, Jerilyn stepped over the body and started walking. She had to keep going. From the looks of it, the corpse didn't have anything of value anyway. Usually, whenever a corpse had been killed, Jerilyn would make an attempt to check it for anything of value; but the one she just killed was in such decomposition, in such a horrid state, that it wouldn't have anything valuable on it.

Placing her knife through a belt loop, Jerilyn made sure to keep a close eye on her surroundings. She was on some kind of small highway, with small wooded areas on either side of the road. Since she left the safe-zone, since Veronica's death, Jerilyn was making sure to keep herself as motivated to stay alive as possible. She refused to stay in any one place longer than necessary; only long enough to find supplies or to crash for the night. It was the best solution, one that kept her alive. If she found an area that was overrun with corpses, she would try and hide, to go somewhere safe without being seen. As for people, they were unpredictable. Jerilyn wouldn't get to know whether or not humans were in the area until they attacked her. That only added to her stress.

Looking at the wooded area on either side of the road, Jerilyn made sure to see for any movement. She _needed_ to know there were no corpses, no humans following her. The last thing Jerilyn needed was someone to attack her.

After how far she came since the safe-zone, the last thing Jerilyn needed was to get hurt or killed.

* * *

 **(A/N):**

 **Significantly shorter than the previous chapter, but I thought it would be at least decent. What do you guys think? I'm not really someone who likes to write super long chapters, going into super in-depth storytelling and over explaining every little detail about certain things. I kinda like keeping things short and simple if I can help it. If you've got any constructive criticism on anything, don't hesitate to let me know.**

 **TWD doesn't belong to me.**

 **If you've got ideas for an OC or a subplot, PM me or leave a review and I'll try to add it in as soon as possible.**

 **Plenty of thanks.**

 **Bleu**


	3. Chapter 3

_We all carry on (We all carry on)_  
 _When our brothers in arms are gone (When our brothers in arms are gone)_  
 _So raise your glass high_  
 _For tomorrow we die,_  
 _And return from the ashes you call._

-Mama; **from My Chemical Romance**

* * *

Aching, that's all Jerilyn felt. Her legs ached, her feet ached, her arms and back ached. She'd been up since before the sun rose, trying to get an early start on her day. Jerilyn was hoping to find more supplies, get to the next town or city before nightfall. It wasn't easy, since a lot of the areas she went to were filled with too many corpses for her to feel comfortable. There was no way in hell she was going to get herself killed over a place to sleep. So Jerilyn kept walking, and eventually she found herself on the highway, with the woods on either side of her. She'd stop every couple hours for a water break, or to nibble on whatever food she had. Jerilyn had to figure out ways to make the food and water last; so no matter how much her throat burned or her stomach ached, she wouldn't eat or drink more than she had to. No matter how many times Jerilyn swore she would pass out, she had to remind herself that it was better to ration what she had than to overindulge and eventually go hungry and thirsty. It didn't help that the heatwave was making her feel even worse. She was sweating like a pig, and with all the filth and corpse blood on her and her clothes, Jerilyn wouldn't doubt she looked dead on her feet. Literally and figuratively.

Letting out a slight huff, Jerilyn brushed some of her sweaty, tangled hair out of her face. If she had a hairband, she would've pulled it into a ponytail, but Jerilyn didn't think something as simple as a _hairband_ would be worth the search. In all honesty, Jerilyn was still searching for her brother. She was certain she'd entered Alabama, considering how far she walked since the safe-zone's fall and however much time had passed since then. Time had been the one thing Jerilyn didn't keep track of. She tried, in the beginning, once the power went out, but it started to take too much of her time, so she gave up. All that mattered was that Jerilyn was alive to see the sun rise in the east and set in the west. Unfortunately, though, Jerilyn hadn't been very lucky in her search for her brother. Lenny had been very adamant that no one be able to contact him or Sebastian, which made matters worse once the virus made an appearance. Jerilyn did everything in her power to get in contact with her former stepfather, she had to know whether or not Sebastian was OK. It didn't seem to matter in the end. Lenny made sure he and Sebastian were unreachable. By the time the virus was becoming more of an issue, and people were becoming more panicked, that was when Jerilyn decided to take matters into her own hands.

Dany hadn't been thrilled over Jerilyn's decision to leave. Jerilyn's older sister wanted her to stay, since they still had a home, food, and water. Dany's husband, Alex, tried to convince Jerilyn to change her mind, but she wouldn't listen. So, with whatever money Jerilyn earned, and some money she stole from Dany and Alex, Jerilyn left the safety of her sister's home and went to find her brother. Dany had expressed just as much concern for Sebastian's safety as Jerilyn was, but she was trying to look at everything from a more rational viewpoint. Dany didn't think hastily packing everything up and leaving was a good idea, since a lot of the people were so unsettled by everything. That had been told to Jerilyn on more than one occasion, but it didn't matter. Jerilyn eventually went her way, while Dany stayed behind with her husband.

The travel from Oklahoma to Arkansas was difficult, since there was so much traffic and so many people trying to get away. Jerilyn eventually ran out of gas, too far from the nearest gas station, and the power was out at that point. There was no way for Jerilyn to get in contact with anyone. Packing what she could into a backpack she brought with her, Jerilyn hiked to the nearest Arkansas town, where she was eventually relocated to a safe-zone. Eventually, the safe-zone failed and the only friend that Jerilyn ever made during that time had been killed. Packing up whatever was necessary — canned food and some energy bars; bottles of water and batteries for her flashlight; a few extra clothes, just in case. She even managed to take a kitchen knife before she left.

It took Jerilyn a couple days to go through her food and water, and that was when she realized she was in real trouble. Jerilyn had tried rationing her supplies the best she could, but she didn't realize just how bad she was at it in the beginning. After running out of food and water, it took Jerilyn three days to find enough food to give her decent enough amounts of energy, and it took an extra day for her to find a stream with cleanish looking water. Hours of filtering the water left Jerilyn with less than a half filled bottle, but it was good enough for her. She made sure to keep enough of the stream water so that she'd have something to filter when she ran low on the filtered water. When her stream water ran out, and food was running low, it was the same process as last time. Just keep looking.

That became her routine. Find resources, kill the occasional corpse, and make sure to stay out of sight of people. For most of Jerilyn's journey, she ran into very few humans. Some were kind and gave her essentials, some even gave her medicine, others weren't so friendly. On more than one occasion, Jerilyn had encountered people who held all kinds of threats on her life if she didn't provide them with what they wanted. Some threatened to shoot her, others threatened to do far worse things than that. Jerilyn managed to get away, though not without some bumps and bruises. The worst injury Jerilyn got, in her opinion, was a knife wound on her shoulder. One attacker she encountered attempted to stab her, but she managed to move the knife far enough to where it gave her a deep gash on her shoulder. Stitches were performed, an infection ensued, and a lot of time and hoping for the best came as a result. The only sign of that time was a very noticeable scar and some discoloration.

Letting out a puff of air, Jerilyn shrugged the straps of her backpack up higher on her shoulders. The heat was unforgiving, and the ache that was pulsing through Jerilyn's body was brutal. She had to at least find a place to stay for the night, then she'd resume her journey in the early hours of the next day.

 _ **~8~**_

Lenny DeJesus came from a Mexican family. They, Lenny's parents and five older siblings, immigrated to America long before he was born, having settled into Alabama months after arriving. Lenny's parents, Maria and Kristopher, were hard workers, trying to instill the same work ethics into their children. Being the youngest of six, that meant there was a lot of pressure for Lenny. He was expected to be just as dedicated to his work as his siblings were, but that didn't happen. Lenny, being the youngest, had a sense of entitlement to him. He believed he didn't have to work, since his family seemed to be doing it all very well on their own. For Kristopher, that infuriated him. Kristopher's five other kids knew it was important to earn their keep, to do whatever was necessary to ensure their own stability in life. Kristopher's youngest son was feeding on everyone else.

After a nasty falling out, Lenny moved away and eventually met Agatha Haymond, a Pawnee Indian in Oklahoma. Lenny tried his best to show he could be a good man, trying to be a good role model for Agatha's two daughters. Dany Duchannes didn't care too much for her mother's fascination in Lenny. Jerilyn was too young to really understand. The only reason a marriage was even brought up was because Agatha fell pregnant. After a quick marriage, Agatha gave birth to a boy she'd name Sebastian. That had been when Lenny's behavior spiraled downward. By the time Sebastian was four, his parents had divorced, with his father gaining sole custody. Dany had been twenty-one at the time, Jerilyn was close to her seventeenth birthday.

Lenny chose to move back to Alabama with his son, hoping to stay close to his family. Sebastian spent the next five years with his father, and when shit started hitting the fan, that was when Lenny knew he was in trouble. People were being relocated, and Lenny wasn't sure how he'd be able to take care of his son while trying to survive in the new world. He decided to hand him over to his eldest sister, Alanna, in hopes that she'd be able to take care of Sebastian if things got bad. Alanna Cruz had three kids of her own with her husband, Ian, and having to take in another one was pushing it. But Alanna loved her nephew, and so she took Sebastian in, despite Ian's protests. Alanna and her family had been sent to a nearby safe-zone, and it lasted only a month and a half before the riots happened. Ian and Alanna's eldest son didn't make it. Sebastian, his cousins Rita and Cassidy, and Alanna managed to escape. They traveled from Alabama to Georgia, where they'd meet a group of people in a quarry.

 _ **~8~**_

The sun was getting lower, which meant that it was getting closer to evening. The heat was dying down, which was a relief for Jerilyn. She had spent most of her time walking, and every so often she'd check any abandoned vehicles for supplies. If there were corpses inside, she'd kill them. If the car happened to be _filled_ with corpses, she'd leave them alone.

In the few cars Jerilyn managed to scavenge, she found some water bottles filled with hot water, a few cans of food, and a bottle of nearly expired anti-inflammatory medication. Jerilyn shoved it into her backpack without a second thought. Nearly expired or not, the bottle had to have enough medicine in it to last two or three weeks if used scarcely. When it came to the apocalypse, it didn't matter if the food or medicine was expired, it was better than nothing. It didn't matter if the bottles of water were partially used, if there was enough to last a couple hours, then it was going to be taken and used.

After spending a majority of the day on the highway, Jerilyn decided to venture off it. She went down a side road that broke off into several dirt roads. The dirt roads led into some wooded areas, and as badly as Jerilyn tried to avoid those areas, she decided to go down those ways anyway. Spending so long in the heat made her sick, and she wanted to spend a little time in the shade. Not to mention that if she happened to come across a cabin of some sort, then she'd be more than happy to spend the night in there, should it not be filled with corpses or living people.

Licking her dried lips, Jerilyn nodded to herself in confirmation. That would be her plan. She'd figure something else out should everything go sideways.

* * *

 **(A/N):**

 **If there's anything you think I could improve on, don't hesitate to let me know, OK? Constructive criticism is important, in my opinion. Also, it's been a while since I've seen season 1 of TWD, but the original group did reside in a quarry outside of Atlanta, right? If I got it wrong, let me know and I'll change it.**

 **I don't own TWD. All I own are my characters and the subplots I put in.**

 **If you've got ideas for OCs or subplots, don't hesitate to tell me. Leave a PM or a review with your idea[s].**

 **Thanks!**

 **Bleu**


	4. Chapter 4

_Well I heard there was a secret chord_  
 _That David played and it pleased the Lord_  
 _But you don't really care for music, do you?_  
 _Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth_  
 _The minor fall and the major lift_  
 _The baffled king composing Hallelujah_

-Hallelujah; **by Rufus Wainwright**

* * *

 _"You can't be serious!" Dany looked at Jerilyn with wide eyes. The sisters had been arguing for the past half hour, debating on whether Jerilyn leaving the safety of Dany's apartment was a good idea. With all the rioting and news of the dead walking and cannibalism, the last thing Dany wanted was her sister to go running off on a suicide mission. For Jerilyn, she saw nothing wrong with her journey. Driving to Alabama should be a breeze, in Jerilyn's mind. As long as she had enough money and a tank full of gas, then nothing should be getting in her way. Except for Dany, that is. "Do you not understand how dangerous it is out there?" Dany snapped. "People are being murdered! They're getting murdered and eaten by cannibals!"_

 _"Why can't you just back the hell off?" Jerilyn barked. "It's not like you're the one leaving! All you want to do is play housewife and pretend nothing out there is actually happening."_

 _"Really?" Crossing her arms over her chest, Dany looked at Jerilyn with slitted brown eyes. "You really think I'm pretending that's not happening? I've had two of my friends sent to the hospital because people were trying to eat them. Mom's having a fit 'cause she thinks something's gonna happen to us, and now you're wanting to leave."_

 _"Jesus Christ, just fuck off," Jerilyn snapped. "I'm trying to get to our brother. Remember him? The one Lenny took? I mean, I hated Lenny just as much as you, but I'm just not going to forget my baby brother."_

 _Dany's eyes widened for a moment, her mouth hanging open. Lenny was the last husband Dany's and Jerilyn's mother, Agatha, would ever marry. Her first husband, the father of the two sisters, had abandoned the family not long before Jerilyn was born; Dany vaguely remembered their father, and she wasn't very fond of him. Lenny was no different, except he managed to stick around after Agatha got pregnant.* But the suggestion that Dany chose to forget Sebastian after the divorce was something that struck a chord in her. Jerilyn had always been concerned about Sebastian's safety, add Lenny's refusal to have contact plus the outbreak, that only added to Jerilyn's worries._

 _"I've liked to think I've heard a lot of stupid things in my life," Dany said slowly, "but yours just takes the cake. I haven't forgotten about Sebastian, Jerilyn. I think about him every day. I'm just not as open about it as you are. And I didn't like Lenny in the slightest, but it hurt like hell when he got custody of Sebastian. It hurt even more when Lenny cut ties with us. So don't you dare think I don't care about our brother."_

 _"Then why won't you look for him?"_

 ** _~8~_**

The fight with Dany had been the last time Jerilyn ever spoke to her. Once communications had dropped, there had been no way to get in contact with her. Though, at the time, Jerilyn was still pissed at her sister for what had gone down in the apartment. The two sisters knew how to hold a grudge, and it would usually take months before either of them chose to forgive each other. The only time Dany and Jerilyn had a fight to end all fights was the day the sisters found themselves crushing on the same guy. When he chose to date Dany, Jerilyn refused to talk to her for the duration of the relationship. Which had been a year and a half. Agatha thought the whole fight was ridiculous, but nothing she did seemed to ease the tension between her daughters.

For Jerilyn, she felt an immense feeling of guilt for the way things ended between her and Dany. She knew her older sister was looking out for her, but Jerilyn just didn't want to see it. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Jerilyn scowled slightly. What had happened to Dany after things got worse? Did she make it out alive? Was she still in Oklahoma? It wouldn't be surprising if Dany chose to stick around in Oklahoma, to maybe be close to their mother and other family members. Jerilyn would've given anything to stick around, but she had to know for sure of Sebastian made it out alive. Shrugging her backpack straps higher on her shoulders, Jerilyn tried adjusting her walk so it would ease the immense discomfort she was feeling. Her aching joints were still bothering her, and she knew that she had to at least find shelter as soon as possible.

The dirt roads Jerilyn traveled down, after breaking off from the highway, seemed to lead mostly to dead ends, maybe one or two having a couple corpses here and there. It wasn't unusual, seeing an occasional corpse in wooded areas. It seemed as though those corpses were unfortunate people who met an end some time before things got too bad. While backtracking down a dead end dirt path, Jerilyn stopped when a corpse stumbled in front of her path. The corpse itself was obviously a woman before turning. Its clothes were filthy and tattered, almost unrecognizable. The remaining hair on the corpse's head was tangled and filthy. The skin was in the early stages of decay, its eyes bloodshot and its teeth rotted. Jerilyn got out her weapon, and that was when the corpse saw her. Snarling, it stumbled towards Jerilyn, its arms outstretched in an attempt to grab at her. And boy, oh boy could corpses grab. On a few occasions Jerilyn found herself in a situation where a corpse was grabbing at her, and their grip was firm; even for the dead.

Once it was close enough, Jerilyn drove the blade of her knife into the corpse's head. The blood that came out was blackish in color, and the sound that was made was one Jerilyn was accustomed to — the sickening sound of the blade cutting through the skull and decayed skin. In the beginning, when Jerilyn was starting to get into the grove of killing the dead, not only would the sight of them alone be enough to make her sick, but the sounds that were made when she killed them made her vomit. Literally. Jerilyn didn't want to see herself as someone capable of killing, since she wanted to believe the creatures who were trying to cannibalize her were still people. It took some time, but she finally go out of that mindset, and she eventually stopped getting so sick when she killed them. The only thing she experienced after killing a corpse was the agitation that arose when her blade got stuck in their skulls. Jerilyn came to know that all the corpses were in various forms of decay, which meant their skulls were either very soft or still hard. Which also meant getting her knife out of their head would be easy or near impossible.

For the corpse in front of her, Jerilyn knew that its skull was at least somewhat soft. The force Jerilyn used to kill it had been a bit much, since she could never really tell how much force would be necessary to ensure its permanent death. Since the skull was somewhat soft, that meant she should have some ease getting the blade out, but it wasn't like that at first. The blade was stuck, and Jerilyn was pulling her hardest to get it out. Once she had it out, the body fell to the ground with a loud thud. Some of the blood from the stab wound trickled onto the dirt path. Wiping the bloodied blade on her filthy jeans, Jerilyn let out a puff of air before stepping over the body. The sun was getting lower, she had to keep moving before nightfall.

* * *

 **(A/N):**

 **I know this chapter's a bit late, but I got sidetracked by other things and forgot about this. Hopefully the chapter is at least interesting enough to keep your attention, reviewers. If there's anything you think needs improvement, don't hesitate to let me know, OK? I'd love to hear some constructive criticism.**

 **Nothing in TWD belongs to me. All I own are my OCs and the subplots I put in.**

 **If you've got ideas for OCs or subplots that should b e added into the story, don't hesitate to let me know. I'll be sure to put it in as quickly as possible. All you have to do is PM me or leave a review.**

 **As a warning for those of you who are genuinely interested in this story, I'll be starting up fall quarter classes on the 18th, which isn't that far away. I'll be pretty busy with those classes plus work, so I'll try to update whenever I get the opportunity.**

 **Thanks.**

 **Bleu**


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